Water-purifying apparatus.



G.1 FBIPPER',JB.- WATER PURIPYING APPARATUS. l

APPLICATION PPLEDMABV... 5 1 9 0 9 l y Patented'vJuly', 1909.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

` Patented July e, 190e.

Application led March 5, 1909. 4 Serial'No. 481,222.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that 1,. GEORGE PFEIFFER, Jr., a citizen of the United States, residing in'Merchantville, New Jersey, have invented `certain Improvements in .Water-Purifying pparatus, of which the following is a specia'tlon.

The object of my invention is to so con struct a water purifier as to combine therein simplicity and cheapness of construction, large capacity and efficiency of action. This object I attain in the manner herein after set forth, reference being had to the accompanying rawing, in wh'iehf- Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view of a water purifier constructed iif. accordance with my invention, and Fig. 2 is adiorizontal section on the line o o, Fig. 1.

The purifier is in the form of a tower which may be constructed in4 anyf desired way and may e of any desired horizontal cross section. As shown in the present instance, it is of rectangular cross section and consists ol' angle iron posts 1 located at the corners of 1 the tower and havingt secured to them an external sheathing 2 which may be of light sheet metal as it is not subjected to pressure or strain. l

' Connecting the corner posts are horizontal bars 3, the uppermost of these-bars serving for the support of a distributor 4 which receives the water. from the downwardly bent upper'end .of the supply stand pipe 5, a

slides, as shown in Fig. 2.

spreader platc (i being supported immediately below the downwardly discharging mouth of the stand pipe in order to receive the impact of the incoming volume of water and spread the latter over the bottom of the separator, the latter consisting of abox with slotted bottom, the arca of the slots being regulable by the adjustment from and toward each other of plates 7 which are slidably mounted u on the bottom of the box and which can Ee secured in position after any desired adjustment by any suitable means, as, for instance, by means of bolts 9 adapted to slots in the outer `portions of the The volume of flow being regulated to aecord with the area of the o ening provided b y the slides 7, said flow is r ivided into rela-v tlvel thin and laterally separated streams Whic in their descent, are caused to pass through'successive bodies 11 of coke or other suitable filtering material deposited in boxes 12 which are supported upon the bars 3 of air thereloro passing t the tower in thc same manner as the distributmg box 4. These boxes 12 have, 1n

ltheir bottoms, openings for the passage of the water and by preference these openings' -are provided with adjustable slldes for regulating their area.

The ltering boxes 12 are disposed at suitable distances apart throughout the height of the tower in order that the lfalling water may be caused -to pass through the filtering Abodies in succession the water droininrr 7 h from the lowermost filtering box being collcctcd in a well or tank 13 at the base of the tower from which it can be withdrawn for use or for being subjected to the action of a supplementary nltering bed over whlch the water 1s permitted to flow and which serves to separatci'fr n the water any impurities held in mechanical suspension therein and which may not have been removed theretower and leave a space between the box and the opposlte side or the tower, these spaces.

being in'st at the right hand side ofthe tower and then at the left hand side of the same so as to provide a zigzag or tortuous course for.

air supplied to the lower Aportion of the tower )ymeans of a pipe 14, the current ot' aterally across the falling streams of water as the latter How from the distributing box 4 at the top of the tower to the uppermost filtering box or from filter box to lter box throughout the height of the tower, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1, the bottom of each filtciybox, at that end which is in contact with the sideof the tower, projecting to such an extent-as to overlap the space between the sideof the tower and the end of the filter box below, whereby these spaces are ke )t free from any falling bod r of water and t e forward How of the air t n'ough the tower is not interfered with by such falling bodies, the iow of the air, when in contact with the water,` being at right angles tothe direction of the water flow whereby the latter olels a minimum roo of resistance to the passage of the air, while, e

at the same time a maximum ofsurface is exposed for the action of the air upon the finely divided bodies of water, such action servlng to oxidize the oxidizable .impurities contained lin the water and cause them to be deposited upon the filtering material in the filter boxes 12, the current of air also lcarrying oif any free' gas which may be in the water lor any gas which may be freed therefrom by the action of the air thereupon, the

. of the tower, and a; succession of filterl beds disposed one above another in the tower with spaces between them.

2. A Water purier consisting of a tower, means for supplying' water at the ltop of the same-and air at the bottom, and a succession of filter beds disposedv one above another in the tower, with spaces between them', whereby the water is caused to pass through said iilter beds in succession, the filter beds being so disposed th'at the air in Vits passage through the tower is caused to take a tortuous course.

A charge therefrom.

4. The combination, in a water purifier,

of 4a tower, means for supplying water at the top'of the' same and an" at the bottom, a

'series .of lter lbeds disposed one above another with ls aces between them, and a distributer at t e top of the tower having a slotted bottom with adjustable slides whereby the area of said slots canbe increased or diminished.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GEORGE PFEIFFER,JR.

Witnesses: y

HAMILTON D. TURNER, KATE A. BEADLE. 

